


Blue and Gold

by Moonanstars



Series: Freelancer Implosion verse [1]
Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: Agent York (Red vs. Blue) Lives, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Artificial Intelligence, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-09
Updated: 2020-02-09
Packaged: 2021-02-27 18:47:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,268
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22640521
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moonanstars/pseuds/Moonanstars
Summary: “Are you sure we should do this?”Carolina tasted gold on the back of her tongue when Eta spoke in her head.  It tasted like cold sunshine that cast no shadows and gave no warmth.  She was better at tuning her AI out than she had been in the beginning but she’d also found that if she ignored Eta and Iota that their feelings started to leak through more than they already did.  As it was her stomach was in knots and Carolina was clenching her teeth so they wouldn’t chatter as the fear from Eta leaked through.Despite all that Carolina’s hands were steady as she wired the charges to the door she needed to get through.  Intel and supplies were on the other side of the door and they were too important to leave without.  “What have I told you about distracting me?”
Relationships: Agent Carolina/Agent York (Red vs. Blue)
Series: Freelancer Implosion verse [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1628671
Comments: 1
Kudos: 9





	Blue and Gold

_“Are you sure we should do this?”_ Carolina tasted gold on the back of her tongue when Eta spoke in her head. It tasted like cold sunshine that cast no shadows and gave no warmth. She was better at tuning her AI out than she had been in the beginning but she’d also found that if she ignored Eta and Iota that their feelings started to leak through more than they already did. As it was her stomach was in knots and Carolina was clenching her teeth so they wouldn’t chatter as the fear from Eta leaked through. 

Despite all that Carolina’s hands were steady as she wired the charges to the door she needed to get through. Intel and supplies were on the other side of the door and they were too important to leave without. “What have I told you about distracting me?” 

_“Not to.”_ Eta’s voice in her mind was quietly miserable. _“But we’ll get caught. We’ll get put in somewhere we can’t get out.”_ It was too risky of a situation to let the AI’s project out of her armor with their holograms to communicate since it would be too easy to be overheard. Somehow, even speaking in her head Carolina could feel Eta wringing his non existent hands together in agitation. Then there was a soothing murmur of a second voice in her head tasting of clear skies and clean water as Iota soothed his twin so Carolina could work.

It was difficult to work with the two voices talking to each other in Carolina’s head, but no more so than it had been when there’d been a whole team to distract her. And with Iota helping the fear ETA put out wasn’t making Carolina’s pulse race anymore. What was more distracting was the way she could feel the AI talking with all of her senses. No one else seemed to experience that but Carolina not only _heard_ the voices, she smelled and tasted them along with feeling them along her nerve endings in a never ending sizzle. It made sleeping difficult but since everyone implanted with an AI dealt with insomnia she was able to shrug it off as not that bad if anyone brought it up and they couldn’t prove her wrong.

“I’d ask how I was distracting you but I’m guessing it’s the chatty Cathies in your head and not me. We almost done here?” York’s voice was light on the radio but Carolina wasn’t fooled. He’d been unhappy about this plan to use explosives instead of picking the lock from the beginning and it was doubtful he’d changed his mind about that along the way. However he felt, York was still watching her back while she set the charges 

“Almost. Take cover.” Habit and practice moved her fingers through finalizing the charges and setting the delay and triggering the detonator. There was a ten second delay so there should have been plenty of time to get to cover but Carolina hadn’t factored in for Eta. 

The burst of fear from the AI had flooded her in a burst of radiant gold that felt like biting on tinfoil and Carolina felt her muscles lock into place. Everything went quiet and distant between cortisol making her hearing go dim and the shrill static of Eta along her nerves as he panicked. Carolina heard Iota screaming dimly, urging her to move and somehow she managed to break the muscle lock and start to take stumbling steps forward. 

Just when she was sure that she wasn’t going to make it Carolina felt her arms grabbed. She was pulled around the corner and shoved into the wall with someone else’s weight leaning against her to hold her there when the explosives went off sending shrapnel down the hallway she’d just been standing in. 

Before she could get her brain moving again Carolina was yanked around by one arm to face York’s familiar gold armor. The adrenaline was dumping out of her system making her feel like her knees were wobbly and she went along with York’s pull without resisting until they were almost visor to visor and she had to put her hand on his chest to keep from smacking into him. 

“What were you doing!” York was shouting over the radio and punctuating every word with a shake like he was trying to rattle answers out of her faster. “You could have been hurt, hell you could have been killed if I hadn’t been here!” 

Carolina could feel the happiness from Iota that they were alive along with the overshadowing fear from Eta that with all of this York would leave them again and she’d be alone. Feeling them along with her own confusing emotions felt like she was being pulled apart and riding a sudden wave of white-hot anger Carolina snarled and yanked her arm out of York’s grip. “Stop it!” 

York let go and backed away a step with his hands up signalling he wasn’t going to touch her again and she had to turn away from him when he surrendered instead of letting her pick a fight. Carolina wanted to scream at him until he fought back but fighting with York was too much like fighting water. In the end she turned back to him and backed away a step of her own. “I didn’t ask you to come with me, York.” 

“No. You didn’t.” York’s hands slowly lowered but they moved restlessly like he wanted to reach out to her but didn’t dare until he finally crossed his arms to keep them still. “But you didn’t tell me to leave either.” 

It was a dare, both of them knew it, and Carolina even felt Eta and Iota go completely still in her mind in shock that York had left such an obvious challenge out there. Carolina drew in a breath to tell York to go ahead and leave but she couldn’t quite force the words out through her numb lips. Finally she let her breath out again in a soft sigh. “No, I didn’t.” 

She might not have been able to tell him to leave but Carolina couldn’t bring herself to ask him to come with her either. That would be too much like losing. With an irritated grunt she turned back to grab the equipment from behind the destroyed door she wanted. The intel was locked onto data chips that would need to be decrypted so they were shoved into the storage compartment on her armor on the way out. There was another dizzying moment of nerves as she wondered if he would finally draw that line completely in the sand and force her to ask him to come with her. 

He didn’t. York turned when she passed him and fell into position a pace behind her to her right so he could cover her on the way out without saying a word. Feeling him there made the nerves die down so Carolina’s chest felt looser. 

_“You know that last bit wasn’t Eta.”_ Iota’s voice in her mind was barely a whisper but it felt and tasted blue-black like a stormy ocean closing up her throat just when it had been easier to breathe. _“That was all you.”_

Carolina closed her eyes for a few seconds to center herself against the barrage of color against all of her senses and clenched her jaw. “Shut. Up.” The AI receded to only a distant presence in her mind again. 

Whatever York thought of her icy outburst he was smart enough to keep it to himself as he followed her out.


End file.
